Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-17
COKE'S LETTER.
He Refuses to be Present at the Anti
Prohibition Convention to be
Held at Dallas.
He Trusts that Convention VIII Formulate
a Plan of Campaign Above the
Plane of farty Politics.
WACO. Tex. April Is. 1881.

GENTLEMEN u ours Oh April mas
been received. 1t informs me that at 8
meeting in Austin of prominent Demo,
Gratis, from all parts of the state, state
convention to meet in Dallas on the first
Wednesday in May was called, and that
the objects for which said convention was
called are two-fold, to witt
l. To set forth clearly and unequlvo-
caIly the time-honored and cardinal
principles of the Democratic party, from
Jefferson, its founder, down to the pres
ent time, viz: opposition to all forms Of
sumptuary legislation.
2. To set on foot well organized and
vigorous campaign against the proposed
prohibition amendment to the COnstitu-
ton.
an honored by this letter with al in
vitation to attend and address the con-
VentiOn. While | am in full and cordial
sympathy with the declared purpose of
the proposed.convention, to "set on foot
a well organized and vigorous campaign
against the proposed prohibition amend
ment to the constitution" firmly and
conscientiously believing as l do, and
have recently stated in an open letter to
the Dallas Herald, that the best interests
of the state, of society, of social order
and true temperance reform, demand
that said ame ndment be voted down at the
polls in August next, it is Nth extreme
regret that | am compelled to say that
cannot concur with you as to the ex-
pediency of Involving the Democratic
party in the controversy. The time has
passed when, in my Judgment, this is
nnCSihlp UUifhnnf no rtU djCrnntiOn Two
years ago when the public mind
was receiving its first impression
on the prohibition question, when it
was an open question in the politics
of the state, when it was publicly avowed
ana universally known to all men that the
local option elections then being held in
some forty of the richest and most dense
~ populated counties in the state, extend
ing across the country from Red river TO
and beyond the Colorado, were only the
skirmishes preceding the grand battle now
to be fought over the prohibition amend
ment; that these elections were part and
parcel of the present prohibition cam
paign; that county local option and state
prohibition were held and treated in the
discussions of the canvass and accepted
by the public, as in my judgment they are,
principle and eXpediency, many Demo
Gratis, myself among the number, exerted
themselves to the utmost to arouse the
Democratic people of Texas, and align
the Democratic party in battle array
against the heresy of prohibition, prepar-
atOry to the impending canvass. With
these things fresh in the public mind the
duly accredited representatives of the
If TavoC 9ironf frpro +lo
pie, met in convention in August last at
Galveston, and without dissenting voice
adopted platform which in it's twelfth
plank declares this question outside Of,
utterly uncOnnected with, and irreVelant
to party politics. Not voice was raised
nor vote cast against this conclusion.
This solemn Judgment OF the highest tri-
bunal known to the Democracy of Texas
stands to-day unreVersed and unappealed
from. Those of US who tried our utmost
to put the Democratic party in line against
prohibition failed utterly and signally to
do it, and were incontinently sat down on
by the convention. Thousands of good
and true Democrats throughout thetstate,
under the decision of their highest party
tribunal, have chosen to fall into inesun-
derthe prohibition banners, while thou
sands of others equally honest and true,
who had previously declared for prohibi-
ton, but VINO would have followed their
party colors under different decision,
have been confirmed in their
opinions and become more deter
mined in their action. The only pos
siOle effect of a party contest under these
conditions will be disruption, q break
ing in half of the Democratic party, q
division of it into two warning factions,
each ready for fusion or alliance with
any other party to overcome the other
For united party there is always hope
that its errors will be reversed and cor
rected, while with one broken and dis
rupted no hope is left. The COLDER
moment for putting the Democratic
party in line against prohibition passed
at Galveston in August last when the
Democratic convention was in session
1t is too late now.
AS a Democrat who believes in party
organization and party discipline as the
only means of carrying out great political
principles, and who knows by experience
that these results can be attained only by
a subordination of individual opinion tC
the expressed will OF the whole, land whose
conscientious convictions are that 8
refusal by his fellow ti-prOhibitionists
to accept in good faith the action of the
Galveston convention on tthis question
will be fatally disastrous to the unity anC
integrity of the Democratic party, pro
pose by no word or act Of mine to make
this other than a purely nOn-partisan
nou-pOlitiCal canvass. We have had oul
day in court-on this as q party question
and Judgment has been rendered against
US, and there is but one legitimate way
to reopen that judgment for discussion
and that is through a Democratic con
vention regularly called by the executive
committee. of the party, and this com
mittee, though its chairman, Hon. Henry
ExslI, is strongly opposed to the prohibi-
IiOn amendment, | am reliably informed
is by q considerable majority in favor Of
It's adoption. Any other way of attack
| ing the action of the Galveston Conven
ton would be revolutionary, and could
not fail TO produce anarchy, confusion
disruption, and an utter contempt fol
party discipline and party ties, in tht
party We already haye an alarming
| tendency in this direction in thu
destroy the party. Firmly convinced thai
Democratic supremacy IN LnlS state is o.
that vital and paramount importance tc
the people of Texas and the nationa
Democratic party. which overrides al
other considerations, and that to give 8
party complexion and character to the
canvass, will seriously endanger if not
certainly overthrow it, feel constrained
to decline your kind invitation to attend
and address the Dallas convention, for
the same reasons that impelled me to de-
cline a participation in the canvass at all.